Our Leadership

Matthew “Matt” Sheehy is President and Chief Executive Officer of Tallgrass. Prior to joining the Board of Directors, he served as the Chairman of the Rockies Express Pipeline LLC Board from December 2019 until July 2021. Mr. Sheehy joined Tallgrass in November 2012 and held a number of positions, including Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Tallgrass. In addition, he served as the President of Rockies Express Pipeline LLC from December 2013 until July 2017 and as a board member of Rockies Express Pipeline LLC from November 2016 to March 2018. Prior to joining Tallgrass, he served as a Principal and General Partner at Silverhawk Capital Partners LLC. Mr. Sheehy was an Analyst at Wachovia Securities and Wachovia Capital Partners before joining Silverhawk. In addition, Mr. Sheehy has served on the Board of Directors of Bridger Aerospace Group since July 2018. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University in 2002.

Crystal Heter was named Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Tallgrass Energy in July 2020. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the company’s Operations, Engineering, Projects, and Environment, Health, Safety and Security functions. Prior to ascending to the role of COO, Heter served as Segment President, Natural Gas Transportation for Tallgrass, as well as President of Rockies Express Pipeline. In that capacity, she was responsible for commercial operations of the company’s natural gas pipelines. Heter has been with Tallgrass since its inception in 2012.

Prior to joining Tallgrass, Heter worked for Kinder Morgan for 12 years in various project management and commercial roles. Crystal has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

Damon Daniels has served as Chief Commercial Officer of Tallgrass since February 2020. In his role, Damon is responsible for Tallgrass’ portfolio growth, both in traditional and decarbonization energy infrastructure, as well as the commercial operations of the company’s existing assets. In his over 20 years’ experience in the energy industry, Damon’s leadership extends across both commercial and legal sectors. His business development track record includes the successful commercialization of over US$10 billion of energy infrastructure investment in North America, including over 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) of large diameter interstate and intrastate pipelines. Before joining Tallgrass, Damon worked as General Manager-Midstream at Phillips 66 and Vice President – Business Development at Energy Transfer. Earlier in his career, as an energy attorney at Vinson & Elkins and Paul Hastings, Damon advised Fortune 500 energy companies on domestic and cross-border transactional and regulatory matters in North America and Europe.

Damon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Elliott School of International Affairs of George Washington University, a Juris Doctor (JD, law) degree from Harvard Law School, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from McCombs School of Business of University of Texas at Austin.

Gary D. Watkins is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Tallgrass. Prior to assuming this role in February 2020, Mr. Watkins was Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, and before that he was Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Watkins also served as a director on the Rockies Express Pipeline LLC Board until July 2021. He was Vice President, Controller and Principal Accounting Officer of DCP Midstream Partners, LP and DCP Midstream, LLC from 2011 until 2014 when he joined Tallgrass. Mr. Watkins also held the positions of Senior Director-Marketing Accounting and Director of Corporate Accounting with DCP Midstream. Prior to joining DCP Midstream, Mr. Watkins held various positions of increasing responsibility at Advanced Energy Industries Inc. He also served in the Denver offices of Arthur Andersen LLP and KPMG LLP. Mr. Watkins is a Certified Public Accountant and graduate of Colorado State University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a minor in Economics.

Michael Callahan joined Tallgrass in September 2016 and has served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of our general partner since June 2020. Prior to joining Tallgrass, Mr. Callahan was a senior partner in the Kansas City office of an AmJur 100 law firm. Before law school, Mr. Callahan served on active duty as an Infantry officer with the U.S. Army; he continues to serve in the National Guard. Mr. Callahan earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York and his Juris Doctor degree from Washburn University.

Jarid Kling is Senior Vice President, Operations & Maintenance, at Tallgrass. In this role, he is accountable for the safe operation and maintenance of Tallgrass’ assets, Systems Engineering and the Operations Control Center (OCC). Prior to his current role, Mr. Kling served the company as Vice President for Operations Control and Systems Engineering. He joined Tallgrass in 2014 to oversee the start-up of the Pony Express Pipeline. Before that, he worked on the Trans Alaska Pipeline (TAPS) for 16 years in numerous roles including process engineering, projects, maintenance, reliability, operations, and process safety. Mr. Kling has a BS in Civil/Environmental Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.

Jana Johnston is Senior Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer at Tallgrass. In this role, she is responsible for all aspects of human resources strategy, leadership, and vision including the teams supporting recruiting and talent acquisition, training and development, diversity and inclusion, payroll, total rewards (benefits, compensation, and wellness), mergers and acquisitions and employee relations.  She has been with the company since its inception in 2012 increasing her roles in leadership throughout her tenure.  Jana has more than 20 years of experience working in all aspects of human resources working for Kinder Morgan, 3t Systems/Mortgage Cadence (now part of Accenture),  Innovative Sales Brokers and the military. 

Jana served honorably in the United States Marine Corps and received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.

Brian Broyles is Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Tallgrass. He joined the company in 2017 as Vice President, Information Technology. Before joining Tallgrass, Mr. Broyles held a number of leadership and technology roles during his 18 years at Kinder Morgan, including IT Director, Corporate Systems; IT Manager, Product Pipelines; IT Manager, Terminals; Project Manager; SCADA Engineer; Systems Engineer; and Help Desk. Before joining Kinder Morgan, he worked for United Space Alliance, supporting Mission Control Systems at NASA. Mr. Broyles earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Information Systems.

Julie Mensing has served as Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer for Tallgrass since March 2020. She also is Chairman of the Rockies Express Pipeline LLC Board. Prior to joining Tallgrass, Ms. Mensing served in a number of roles with DCP Midstream, LLC, including Senior Director of Accounting, Director of Financial Reporting and Marketing Accounting and Technical Accounting Manager. Before joining DCP, she held positions with Quark, Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP and Arthur Andersen, LLP. Ms. Mensing is a Certified Public Accountant and graduate of University of Denver, Daniels College of Business, where she earned a Master of Accountancy and Bachelor of Science in Accounting.

Andrea R. Attel has served as Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations at Tallgrass since July 2020. Prior to joining Tallgrass, she was Director of Treasury and Corporate Finance at DCP Midstream, LLC, where she held various positions of increasing responsibility, including Director or Investor Relations, Director of Marketing Accounting, and Director of Corporate Accounting. Before joining DCP Midstream in 2002, Mrs. Attel served in the Denver office of KPMG, LLP.  She is a Certified Public Accountant and graduate of the University of Colorado at Denver, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.

Steven Davidson is Vice President of Government and Public Affairs at Tallgrass. Here, he manages the company’s social and political risk and oversees the Government and Public Affairs. Before joining Tallgrass, he was a member of the Leadership Team at Moda, leading the policy, stakeholder engagement & sustainability functions, including demonstrating the company's performance in these areas in connection with its $3.2 billion sale to Enbridge in 2021. Prior to that, he developed the award-winning communities & social performance team at Cheniere Energy's $15 billion Corpus Christi Liquefaction Facility. Steven began his career as a Sergeant in the Army, serving one tour in East Africa for which he was named “Soldier of the Year” by the Army Times. Following his tenure in the military he served at the Department of Energy. Steven has master's degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Economics. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of North Texas. He lives in Texas with his wife, where he serves as a trustee of the state’s aquarium and coaches the University of Houston’s rugby club.

Zach Rider is the Vice President, Commercial and Corporate Development at Tallgrass, a role he has served in since 2019.  Zach joined Tallgrass in 2013 where he has served in various corporate development roles.  Throughout his career, Zach has led or supported over $10 billion of energy infrastructure acquisitions and capital projects.   He joined the board of Rockies Express Pipeline LLC in 2021 and is currently serving as a board member.  Prior to joining Tallgrass, Zach served as an Infantry officer with the U.S. Army.  Zach has a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy at West Point as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Masters of Science in Finance from the Kelley School of Business of Indiana University.